About the Book

Author: Tatiana de Rosnay

Title: Sarah's Key

Pages: 294

Genre: Historical

Date Published: June 12, 2007

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Format: Audio

Source: Overdrive
​Synopsis:
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

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She couldn't imagine why there was such a difference between those children and her. She couldn't imagine why she and all these other people with her had to be treated this way. Who decided this, and what for?

Review

​My older sister had pointed out a site to me she found, www.recommendmeabook.com, about a month ago. I had a lot of fun playing with it. Although I’d read a good deal of the books I saw on it, there was only one of them I was interested in that was also available at one of my libraries. So I put a hold on it and totally forgot about it until I got the email. So it was like a surprise to myself!

This book is split into two parts. One is about a little girl, Sarah, in 1942 France. The other is a grown woman, Julia, 60 years later. Sarah and her family are Jewish, and I don’t think I need to explain more about how that went. I will say that before this book I had never heard of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. It is horrific. Much of Julia’s story is researching about the roundup for the 60th anniversary.
So much happens in Sarah’s story that is heartbreaking. It’s truly an awful thing that happened. And I appreciate this book for bringing it to my attention.

Personally I’d have preferred for the entire thing being about Sarah and her story.
Julia’s story, on the other hand, was a bit of an annoyance for me. Especially as the story progressed. And I’m just going to be blunt about it. The ending was dumb. My eyes probably fell out at least 5 times because I was rolling them so hard. If I hadn’t like the first 3/4th so much, I’d have just stopped reading it. Actually, I highly recommend everyone stop around 250ish. It’s a lot better that way.